Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster Co., Pa., 1903 by J. H. Beers & Co., page 1009-1010.

CHRISTIAN E. BRACKBILL. One of the most skillful, and consequently most successful, young farmers of Salisbury township, Lancaster Co., Pa., is Christian E. Brackbill, who was born on the farm on which he still lives Jan. 13, 1871. His parents, Elam and Barbara (Hershey) Brackbill, are natives of Paradise township, Lancaster county, where they now reside, but they came to Salisbury township in 1870 and remained until the spring of 1892, when they returned to their native township. Elam Brackbill, a general farmer, was born in 1841, and his wife Barbara (Hershey) Brackbill, in 1851. To their marriage have been born eight children in the following order: Christian E., whose name opens this biography; Susan E., who is married to Daniel Eshleman, a farmer in Leacock township; Magdelina, unmarried; Ida E., wife of John Eshleman, a farmer in Salisbury township; Anna M., wife of John Groff, a farmer also of Leacock township; Harry G., a school teacher, at home; Esther S., also at home; and Elam, deceased. Elam and Barbara (Hershey) Brackbill are members of the Mennonite Church, and for many years Mr. Brackbill was a school director, an office which he filled with marked astuteness. The paternal grandparents of Christian E. Brackbill were Benjamin and Susan Brackbill, and the maternal grandfather was Christian Hershey, who married a Miss Metzler, both of Lancaster county.

Nov. 2, 1893, Christian E. Brackbill was united in marriage with Miss Anna Buckwalter, who has borne him one child, Ellis B. Mrs. Brackbill was born June 14, 1867, in Salisbury township, and is a daughter of Isaac and Magdalina (Hershey) BuckWalter, of whom further mention will soon be made. Immediately after marriage Mr. Brackbill settled down on the farm of 102 acres in Salisbury township and began operations on his own account. As he had been born and reared on the place and was familiar faith every feature and phase of its conditions and intimates with the constituents of its soil and its mutations under climatic or thermal influences, his success was assured at the beginning and he has now as profitable a farm as there is of its dimensions in the township.

In politics Mr. Brackbill is a Republican, but has never sought public office; yet he has served one term as school director, by appointment to fill out an unexpired term. He is an attendant at the Mennonite church, of which Mrs. Brackbill is a devout member, and his walk through life is such as to merit the esteem of his numerous warm-hearted friends and that of the general public, which is accorded him in a marked degree.

Isaac Buchwalter, father of Mrs. Christian E. Brackbill, and now living in retirement in Salisbury township, Lancaster county, was born in East Lampeter township Nov. 1837, and is one of the eleven children born to Henry and Barbara (Neff) Buckwalter, the former of whom died in 1861 at the age of fifty-four years, and the latter in 1864, when fifty-six years old, their remains being interred in Mellinger's cemetery in East Lampeter township. The eleven children comprising the Buckwalter family were born in the following order: Mary, living in Soudersburg, the widow of John Downer; Anna, deceased wife of Benjamin Eby; Susan, who was first married to Walter and next to John Denlinger, but who has now passed away; Sarah, deceased wife of Emanuel Denlinger; Hattie, wife of Israel Landis, of East Lampeter township; Lizzie, wife of Daniel Kreider, of the same township; Barbara, wife of Peter Hershey, of Paradise township; Benjamin, deceased; Freeland, of East Earl township; Martin, of Strasburg township; and Isaac, named above. The paternal grandparents of Isaac Buckwalter were named John and Judith Buckwalter and were natives of Lancaster county.

Isaac Buckwalter and Mattie Hershey were joined in matrimony at Lancaster in 1864, and eight children have resulted from this marriage, namely: Anna, now Mrs. C. E. Brackbill; John, still at home; Mary, married to Chris Zimmerman, a farmer in East Earl township, to whom she has borne three children; Barbara, wife of David Sensinick, mother of two children, and residing in Salisbury township; Isaac, Freeland, David and Martha--all four still at home. The mother of this family, Mrs. Mattie (Hershey) Buckwalter, was born in Salisbury township, in Jan., 1845, and is a daughter of John and Mattie (Musser) Hershey.

Mr. Buckwalter at marriage rented his present farm but by leading a frugal and industrious life soon became its owner, and is now one of the wealthiest men in the township. He and his wife are members of the Mennonite church, and in politics Mr. Buckwalter is a Republican.14